Kournikova in control

By William Johnson in Rome

7:14PM BST 13 May 2002

ANNA KOURNIKOVA was in desperate need of an opening-day victory in the Italian Open yesterday, having won only once in five tournaments since the end of February and after retiring injured from a winning position last week in Warsaw.

She was delighted, therefore, to recover from an early deficit against Spanish qualifier Marta Marrero and justify her request for a wild card into this event by squeezing through a fluctuating match 6-3, 6-3.

Kournikova, comfortably in the world's top 10 before a foot injury kept her off court last year, is no longer guaranteed automatic entry to tournaments having slipped to 68th in the rankings. But her appeal remains high, as the Foro Italico crowd confirmed when she sealed victory after 73 minutes.

It is unlikely that they will see much more of Kournikova here, though. The draw has not assisted her desire to play herself back into form with a succession of matches, because waiting for the Russian in tonight's floodlit match is the world No 1, Venus Williams, who received a bye into the second round.

Kournikova said: "My intention is to bring into play the things I've been working on recently and see what happens. We have not played on clay for a while and it will be her first match here, so you never know."

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Mary Pierce, the former French Open champion, shared top billing with Kournikova yesterday and also enjoyed a welcome victory in a year of indifferent displays. Having reached the third round only once in six events, she got the better of a gritty qualifier in Switzerland's Marie-Gaianeh Mikaelian.

The French player was in a similar mood to Kournikova after grinding out a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory. "I am at an improvement stage," Pierce said. "The more matches I can play, the better. I feel that certain parts of my game are coming back."